Social Experiment
by GlockenBlume
Summary: One-Shot. John is curious to see how his boys will do against stranger danger.


"Social Experiment"

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or any of the characters. I don't even really own the plot. I saw a clip of this experiment on Facebook the other day and my brain went all "what if this was John, Sam, and Dean?" I got this. I only own Larry—and Puffs the dog.

John Winchester sat on the park bench, staring out at the sea of children amongst his two boys. How had his five year old gotten him to stop here for half an hour? "You're weak Winchester," John mumbled to himself, "You deserve this boredom."

John was bored too. Watching children play at the park was only interesting for the first thirty seconds. If Sammy wasn't so smart, John would have called times up ten minutes ago. No, the little rascal could count time passing better than John could. He wasn't sure what to think about that.

"Excuse me," A voice suddenly broke through John's thoughts. He looked up to see a young guy, college age, standing in front of him. The kid was holding one of those small, fluffy white dogs.

"What?" John growled warily, feeling the weight of his gun laying against his back. The young guy smiled, guilelessly not showing alarm at the John's tone. He even went so far as to plop down beside John on the bench.

"Hi, my name is Larry," He introduced, reaching out his arm out for a handshake John suspiciously accepted.

"Harold." John replied, picking a name at random.

Larry smiled again. It was getting creepy. "I'm doing a social experiment for a class. How often do you tell your kids not to talk to strangers?"

John paused, honestly thinking through the question. Mentally, he went over the topics he normally touched with his boys on a daily basis. Stuff like keeping the perimeter salted, how to load and clean a gun properly, never trust anyone outside of the family came to mind.

"Once or twice." John answered with a shrug.

Larry nodded and scribbled John's answer down on his notebook. "So if I were to walk up to them they'd run back to you instead of talking to me?"

John looked over to his boys, Sammy running freely through the mulch with Dean not far behind. "Probably my youngest." John decided, smart enough not to say just what he thought his nine year old would do.

"So…I have permission to go talk to your youngest? Test that out?" Larry asked. John snapped his eyes back to the guy instantly.

" _Christo_ ," He replied.

Larry—completely demon free Larry crinkled his eyes in confusion. "I'm sorry?" He asked but John shook his head.

"Nothing, you can test the kid. He's right over there." John covered, pointing across the park towards Sammy playing near the slides. This actually made the whole trip to the park much more enjoyable. John always loved an opportunity to tests his sons.

* * *

Sammy looked up as a stranger walked to him near the bottom of the slides.

"Hi there—"The man waved cheerfully, "You like my puppy?"

Sammy froze like a deer in headlights. When he doesn't respond the man keeps talking, "Do you want to pet him?" Sammy watches as the man crouches down and pet's his own dog, "His name is Puffs, he's real friendly. C'mon!"

Stiffly, Sam backed up a step from this strange man. Dean doesn't like dogs so neither does Sam. He also doesn't understand why this guy is talking to him. "Hey," The man laughed kindly, teaching towards him. "C'mon. Where are you going?"

When the man's fingers touched Sam's hand, the five year old flipped. "NO!" He screamed wrenching away from the stranger, "Dean!" Sammy wildly whips his neck around looking for his brother only to see him sprinting towards him. Dean got to Sammy's side and wrapped his arms around him.

"Stay away from my brother!" Dean warned angrily.

"I just wanted to show him my puppy—" The man started but Dean cut him off immediately.

"He doesn't want to pet some stupid mutt! Now go away! My dad has a gun—he'll shoot you if you don't leave us alone!" Dean yelled.

Sam watched as the man paled slightly, backing away slowly. Dean growled, kicking mulch in the stranger's direction. "Get lost!"

* * *

John tried to hide his amusement as a downtrodden Larry walked back towards him. "He did didn't come running back towards you." Larry tried.

"Didn't need too. I make sure my oldest is looking out for him." John informed the young man.

"Yeah. That's not normally how the situation goes," Larry whined, brushing mulch off his ugly dog's fur.

"I raise my children outside of social norms in every way possible. Some pedo in the park is really the last of my worries." John stood and yelled for his boys, "Sorry Larry, got to go. Got somewhere to be."

Dean and Sam stopped near his side. Dean, noticing Larry, proceeded to glare, while Sam looked alert but unbothered.

Yeah, maybe John would stop for ice cream on the way outta town just this once. His boys did well today.


End file.
